Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Ten Years ❯ Chapter 5
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: deathangel125 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 08.27.2012 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.3K | Visits: 300 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 08.27.2012 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.3K | Visits: 300 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimers and warnings in first part
TEN YEARS – PART 5
“Kid, how’s it goin’ down there?”
Duo rolled out from under the skiff he was repairing, making sure his braid was far from the wheels of the creeper. Sitting up, he wiped his hands on a greasy rag that had been stuck in his pocket for the last two weeks. By now, he had no doubts it would take at least two more weeks to get the grease completely off his hands, as it had been ground down under his fingernails and into the swirls of his fingerprints. “I’m telling you it would be better off to use this thing for extra parts. You sure you want me to fix it?”
“Don’t talk so loud, she’ll hear you,” Howard crouched down, patting the side of the grey hull affectionately. “She’s the first one I ever owned on my own. Can you get her going again?”
“Who’s the best mechanic this side of L3?” Duo grinned. “I’ll get her going, but I can’t guarantee how far she’ll get before falling apart. She’s held together by space dust, Howard.”
“You just get her running and my boys’ll work on her body. We’ll have her beautiful before I take her out again.”
Rolling his eyes, Duo drawled, “Want me to leave you two alone?”
“Smart-ass,” was Howard’s retort, though he was smiling.
“If you’re done sweet-talking, I’m gonna work some more unless you had a reason for coming down here.” It was possible, but doubtful; Howard had come to this area of the garage for something else. The only things stored in that section were considered useless…other than the shuttle.
“Time to eat. Clean up and come on.”
“Not hungry,” Duo shrugged, lying back down to roll the creeper back under the shuttle. His progress was halted when Howard stuck a sneakered foot in front of one of the wheels. Sitting back up, Duo glared at the older man, who seemed unaffected by the cold stare.
“Not this time, kid. You ain’t eaten in twenty-four hours.”
One look at the stubborn set of Howard’s chin and Duo knew it was pointless to argue. Though the older man was normally laid-back and easy going, once he got that expression there was no budging him. “All right, all right,” Duo muttered as he stood. For a moment he stretched to get his muscles working again, a sure sign he had been cramped under the small space too long. “I’ll go to mess as soon as I change,” he hedged with no intention of going to the mess hall.
“You’re eating with me so you don’t have to change. We’ll get you washed up in my cabin.”
Plodding along beside the other man, Duo tried to think of a way to postpone the discussion he knew they were going to have. Howard had always been supportive of privacy; working on a Sweeper barge could drive you insane otherwise, but when Duo had a problem it was always ferreted out eventually. As he sat down to the food Howard placed on the tiny table, he gave up fighting the battle and waited for the inevitable questions he knew were to come.
“So what happened?” Howard asked once they were both eating.
“I have to have a reason to come see you?”
Howard gave him a knowing expression, “You come to see me two or three times a year for a weekend when you can get away. I know how busy you are, kid. For you to pop up out of the blue and want to stay for an unspecified amount of time…something bad had to happen.”
Duo shrugged and kept eating. Howard was the closest thing he had to a father and he knew he could talk to the older man about anything, but it felt strange to speak of the problems he was having. “I needed to get away for a while to think.”
“Does this have anything to do with Wufei and Heero, or is it Trowa? This the reason I’ve been playing secretary for you and taking all sorts of messages?”
“Why didn’t you toss Quatre in there for good measure?”
“’Cause last I heard he didn’t live with you and was perfectly happy with that guy that’s been living with him. I also know you were happy for him when they got together.”
Duo smiled, “Abdul’s good for Quatre, but it shocked the hell out of them at first.” Seeing eyes on him, not concealed with the normal mirrored sunglasses Howard wore everywhere, he sighed, “Wufei and Heero are looking for a place of their own.”
“That bother you?”
“Nah. I knew they would eventually, and it took longer than I thought for them to get to this point. I bet Wufei brought it up before, but Heero worries I can’t take care of myself and he can be stubborn.”
“Sounds like someone else I know,” Howard commented with a snort. “If it’s not them or Quatre, it has to be Trowa. Tell me what happened.”
“Why does it matter?”
“I have to know if I should have him taken out or just beaten. I’ve never known you to hide from someone, so it must have been really bad.”
“I’m not hiding,” insisted Duo, without heat.
“I’ve already taken over a dozen messages from one Trowa Barton, who sounded like he was in a total panic the first time I said you were busy and looked like he was gonna cry the last time I told him you were busy. Don’t give me any bullshit, kid. You’re hiding and you damn well know it.”
Long minutes passed in complete silence. Abruptly Howard got up and removed their half-empty plates, coming back to the table with two shot glasses and two bottles of liquor – one of whiskey, one of vodka. Starting with the clear liquid, shots were poured and downed in silence. They were already half-way through the first bottle before the long, sordid tale came out, starting with the promise ten years ago and working their way through all the years between, ending with Trowa’s strange behavior over the last few weeks.
Wanting to toss his arms in the air but finding them laden, Duo slumped in the chair, giggling when he almost fell off of it. “That’s everything. I had to get out of there before I did something stupid like shoot him. Or worse yet, tell him how I felt.”
Refilling the glasses, Howard snorted, “Why don’t you just tell him? Seems to me that would be better than torturing yourself with ‘what if’?”
Already well on his way to drunk, Duo squinted his eyes and carefully reached for his glass, tipping it back quickly. He didn’t cough this time as he had before, most of his body already numb. “What good would it do, Howie? Having my thoughts and feelings shoved back in my face isn’t my idea of a good time.”
“Then you’d know if you should move on.”
Narrowing his eyes, Duo focused on Howard. “Dude, I’m working on a really good, decent drunk – the first I’ve had in a number of years, mind you. Don’t fuck it up by making sense. It’s no fun.”
Howard chuckled as he held up the bottle of vodka, “If you plan on getting really drunk you better start drinking faster if you want to catch up with me. I drink a lot faster than you these days. It kind of makes me start to wonder which one of us is the old man.”
The challenge was more than his drunken brain could fight against; it just wasn’t in his nature to turn down a dare. Slapping his glass on the table, he gave Howard a wicked grin, “Fill ‘er up, old man. We’ll see which of us can still walk to bed.”
It felt like hours later when Duo weaved his way toward the cabins at the top deck of the ship, rooms reserved for special guests. He snorted at the thought, wondering why his room had always been up there if they were for special people, but the absent thought disappeared when the floor lurched under his feet, sending him careening into the wall. “Som’body oughta learn a’fly this damn thing,” he muttered, giggling madly when he realized he was the one lurching; not the ship.
It took several tries for him to find his room, one attempt had him stumbling into someone else’s room and surprising the two crew members that had chosen to spend the night together. Snickering insanely, he waved a hand at them and followed their shouted directions, yelling his thanks down the corridor when he finally opened the right door.
Vaguely remembering to shut the door, he did so and leaned heavily on it, closing one eye to make the room stop spinning long enough for him to cross it. He sat with a plop, laughing when he missed the bed completely and ended up in the floor, the laugh turning to a curse when the on-board communicator landed on his head.
He stared at it for a moment before looking up to the ceiling, as if it had landed on him for a reason. Figuring someone was trying to tell him something, he glared at nothing, then at the computer. “Why th’ hell not?”
Minutes passed as he tried to make his fingers push the buttons he wanted. It took several minutes for the call to connect after that. Since it was taking so long, he decided to lay down for just a second, yanking his shirt off before getting off the floor then falling to the bed in a fit of giggles. Forgetting about the call completely, he worked his shoes and pants off and let them drift to the floor.
He was just on the verge of passing out when an irritated voice came from the speaker. “Hello? Who is this?”
With an effort, he sat up and grinned at the man glaring on screen, wiggling his fingers in a wave. “Heya, Tro. Whatca’ doin?”
“I was sleeping.” Trowa’s face lost the frown as he stared. “What’s wrong with you? Are you hurt?”
“Nope. M’drunk,” informed Duo cheerfully. “Had coupla drinks with Howie, then a coupla more. He dared me, but I won damnit. Showed him.” Frowning, he pointed at the other man, willing to lay blame for the situation. “S’your fault.”
“It’s my fault you’re drunk,” Trowa stated, wearing another frown.
“Yup. Thought ‘bout sleepin’ with somebody, too,” he nodded, then shook his head so hard he almost fell off the bed again. “Couldn’t do it.”
“You couldn’t find someone to sleep with?”
Duo snickered at Trowa’s confusion. “Tha’s not a problem ‘round here. Always someone willin’. I think I might’a got invited a few minutes ago, but I’m not sure. Couldn’t do it. You’re fault,” he stabbed a finger at the screen. “Got me so screwed I can’t think. You’re an ass.”
Trowa smiled, although he still seemed baffled. “Perhaps you should sleep, Duo. Do you know when you’re coming home?”
Scratching his head, Duo realized he couldn’t feel his fingers. Staring at them, he shrugged, “Might not. Haven’t ‘cided.”
“You might not come back home?” Trowa’s prior amusement was gone. The odd tone had Duo blinking at the screen. “You work here, Duo. Your home is here.”
“You’re there. Makes it worse.” Losing his grasp on the conversation again, he frowned, “Why’re you an ass to me?”
“You need to go to sleep, Duo. If you remember any of this conversation tomorrow, I need you to come home.”
“Yeah, sure,” Duo rolled his eyes, forcing himself upright when he began to tilt. “Gonna pass out now. Night, Tro.”
He managed to poke the button to disconnect the call, cutting Trowa off in mid-sentence. Giving up the battle against sleep, he fell over on his side and began snoring.
TEN YEARS – PART 5
“Kid, how’s it goin’ down there?”
Duo rolled out from under the skiff he was repairing, making sure his braid was far from the wheels of the creeper. Sitting up, he wiped his hands on a greasy rag that had been stuck in his pocket for the last two weeks. By now, he had no doubts it would take at least two more weeks to get the grease completely off his hands, as it had been ground down under his fingernails and into the swirls of his fingerprints. “I’m telling you it would be better off to use this thing for extra parts. You sure you want me to fix it?”
“Don’t talk so loud, she’ll hear you,” Howard crouched down, patting the side of the grey hull affectionately. “She’s the first one I ever owned on my own. Can you get her going again?”
“Who’s the best mechanic this side of L3?” Duo grinned. “I’ll get her going, but I can’t guarantee how far she’ll get before falling apart. She’s held together by space dust, Howard.”
“You just get her running and my boys’ll work on her body. We’ll have her beautiful before I take her out again.”
Rolling his eyes, Duo drawled, “Want me to leave you two alone?”
“Smart-ass,” was Howard’s retort, though he was smiling.
“If you’re done sweet-talking, I’m gonna work some more unless you had a reason for coming down here.” It was possible, but doubtful; Howard had come to this area of the garage for something else. The only things stored in that section were considered useless…other than the shuttle.
“Time to eat. Clean up and come on.”
“Not hungry,” Duo shrugged, lying back down to roll the creeper back under the shuttle. His progress was halted when Howard stuck a sneakered foot in front of one of the wheels. Sitting back up, Duo glared at the older man, who seemed unaffected by the cold stare.
“Not this time, kid. You ain’t eaten in twenty-four hours.”
One look at the stubborn set of Howard’s chin and Duo knew it was pointless to argue. Though the older man was normally laid-back and easy going, once he got that expression there was no budging him. “All right, all right,” Duo muttered as he stood. For a moment he stretched to get his muscles working again, a sure sign he had been cramped under the small space too long. “I’ll go to mess as soon as I change,” he hedged with no intention of going to the mess hall.
“You’re eating with me so you don’t have to change. We’ll get you washed up in my cabin.”
Plodding along beside the other man, Duo tried to think of a way to postpone the discussion he knew they were going to have. Howard had always been supportive of privacy; working on a Sweeper barge could drive you insane otherwise, but when Duo had a problem it was always ferreted out eventually. As he sat down to the food Howard placed on the tiny table, he gave up fighting the battle and waited for the inevitable questions he knew were to come.
“So what happened?” Howard asked once they were both eating.
“I have to have a reason to come see you?”
Howard gave him a knowing expression, “You come to see me two or three times a year for a weekend when you can get away. I know how busy you are, kid. For you to pop up out of the blue and want to stay for an unspecified amount of time…something bad had to happen.”
Duo shrugged and kept eating. Howard was the closest thing he had to a father and he knew he could talk to the older man about anything, but it felt strange to speak of the problems he was having. “I needed to get away for a while to think.”
“Does this have anything to do with Wufei and Heero, or is it Trowa? This the reason I’ve been playing secretary for you and taking all sorts of messages?”
“Why didn’t you toss Quatre in there for good measure?”
“’Cause last I heard he didn’t live with you and was perfectly happy with that guy that’s been living with him. I also know you were happy for him when they got together.”
Duo smiled, “Abdul’s good for Quatre, but it shocked the hell out of them at first.” Seeing eyes on him, not concealed with the normal mirrored sunglasses Howard wore everywhere, he sighed, “Wufei and Heero are looking for a place of their own.”
“That bother you?”
“Nah. I knew they would eventually, and it took longer than I thought for them to get to this point. I bet Wufei brought it up before, but Heero worries I can’t take care of myself and he can be stubborn.”
“Sounds like someone else I know,” Howard commented with a snort. “If it’s not them or Quatre, it has to be Trowa. Tell me what happened.”
“Why does it matter?”
“I have to know if I should have him taken out or just beaten. I’ve never known you to hide from someone, so it must have been really bad.”
“I’m not hiding,” insisted Duo, without heat.
“I’ve already taken over a dozen messages from one Trowa Barton, who sounded like he was in a total panic the first time I said you were busy and looked like he was gonna cry the last time I told him you were busy. Don’t give me any bullshit, kid. You’re hiding and you damn well know it.”
Long minutes passed in complete silence. Abruptly Howard got up and removed their half-empty plates, coming back to the table with two shot glasses and two bottles of liquor – one of whiskey, one of vodka. Starting with the clear liquid, shots were poured and downed in silence. They were already half-way through the first bottle before the long, sordid tale came out, starting with the promise ten years ago and working their way through all the years between, ending with Trowa’s strange behavior over the last few weeks.
Wanting to toss his arms in the air but finding them laden, Duo slumped in the chair, giggling when he almost fell off of it. “That’s everything. I had to get out of there before I did something stupid like shoot him. Or worse yet, tell him how I felt.”
Refilling the glasses, Howard snorted, “Why don’t you just tell him? Seems to me that would be better than torturing yourself with ‘what if’?”
Already well on his way to drunk, Duo squinted his eyes and carefully reached for his glass, tipping it back quickly. He didn’t cough this time as he had before, most of his body already numb. “What good would it do, Howie? Having my thoughts and feelings shoved back in my face isn’t my idea of a good time.”
“Then you’d know if you should move on.”
Narrowing his eyes, Duo focused on Howard. “Dude, I’m working on a really good, decent drunk – the first I’ve had in a number of years, mind you. Don’t fuck it up by making sense. It’s no fun.”
Howard chuckled as he held up the bottle of vodka, “If you plan on getting really drunk you better start drinking faster if you want to catch up with me. I drink a lot faster than you these days. It kind of makes me start to wonder which one of us is the old man.”
The challenge was more than his drunken brain could fight against; it just wasn’t in his nature to turn down a dare. Slapping his glass on the table, he gave Howard a wicked grin, “Fill ‘er up, old man. We’ll see which of us can still walk to bed.”
It felt like hours later when Duo weaved his way toward the cabins at the top deck of the ship, rooms reserved for special guests. He snorted at the thought, wondering why his room had always been up there if they were for special people, but the absent thought disappeared when the floor lurched under his feet, sending him careening into the wall. “Som’body oughta learn a’fly this damn thing,” he muttered, giggling madly when he realized he was the one lurching; not the ship.
It took several tries for him to find his room, one attempt had him stumbling into someone else’s room and surprising the two crew members that had chosen to spend the night together. Snickering insanely, he waved a hand at them and followed their shouted directions, yelling his thanks down the corridor when he finally opened the right door.
Vaguely remembering to shut the door, he did so and leaned heavily on it, closing one eye to make the room stop spinning long enough for him to cross it. He sat with a plop, laughing when he missed the bed completely and ended up in the floor, the laugh turning to a curse when the on-board communicator landed on his head.
He stared at it for a moment before looking up to the ceiling, as if it had landed on him for a reason. Figuring someone was trying to tell him something, he glared at nothing, then at the computer. “Why th’ hell not?”
Minutes passed as he tried to make his fingers push the buttons he wanted. It took several minutes for the call to connect after that. Since it was taking so long, he decided to lay down for just a second, yanking his shirt off before getting off the floor then falling to the bed in a fit of giggles. Forgetting about the call completely, he worked his shoes and pants off and let them drift to the floor.
He was just on the verge of passing out when an irritated voice came from the speaker. “Hello? Who is this?”
With an effort, he sat up and grinned at the man glaring on screen, wiggling his fingers in a wave. “Heya, Tro. Whatca’ doin?”
“I was sleeping.” Trowa’s face lost the frown as he stared. “What’s wrong with you? Are you hurt?”
“Nope. M’drunk,” informed Duo cheerfully. “Had coupla drinks with Howie, then a coupla more. He dared me, but I won damnit. Showed him.” Frowning, he pointed at the other man, willing to lay blame for the situation. “S’your fault.”
“It’s my fault you’re drunk,” Trowa stated, wearing another frown.
“Yup. Thought ‘bout sleepin’ with somebody, too,” he nodded, then shook his head so hard he almost fell off the bed again. “Couldn’t do it.”
“You couldn’t find someone to sleep with?”
Duo snickered at Trowa’s confusion. “Tha’s not a problem ‘round here. Always someone willin’. I think I might’a got invited a few minutes ago, but I’m not sure. Couldn’t do it. You’re fault,” he stabbed a finger at the screen. “Got me so screwed I can’t think. You’re an ass.”
Trowa smiled, although he still seemed baffled. “Perhaps you should sleep, Duo. Do you know when you’re coming home?”
Scratching his head, Duo realized he couldn’t feel his fingers. Staring at them, he shrugged, “Might not. Haven’t ‘cided.”
“You might not come back home?” Trowa’s prior amusement was gone. The odd tone had Duo blinking at the screen. “You work here, Duo. Your home is here.”
“You’re there. Makes it worse.” Losing his grasp on the conversation again, he frowned, “Why’re you an ass to me?”
“You need to go to sleep, Duo. If you remember any of this conversation tomorrow, I need you to come home.”
“Yeah, sure,” Duo rolled his eyes, forcing himself upright when he began to tilt. “Gonna pass out now. Night, Tro.”
He managed to poke the button to disconnect the call, cutting Trowa off in mid-sentence. Giving up the battle against sleep, he fell over on his side and began snoring.